Managing servers in small environments

A tip on how you can take advantage of the benefits of running Server Core even if you don't feel confident working from the command line.

Administrators in small environments that have only a few servers can still take advantage of all the benefits that come from running the Server Core installation even if they don’t feel confident working from the command line. They can do this by following these steps:

Install Windows Server 2012 on the servers using the Server With A GUI installation option.

Perform all initial configuration of the server using the GUI tools available in this installation option.

Run the Uninstall-WindowsFeature Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra –Restart Windows PowerShell command to convert the servers’ Server With A GUI installation to a Server Core installation as described later in this lesson.

Install the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) for Microsoft Windows 8 on a client computer, and use these convenient GUI tools for managing the servers.

This procedure makes it easy for such administrators to configure their servers while still allowing them to take advantage of the smaller attack surface, servicing overhead, and disk-space requirements of the Server Core option.

Mitch Tulloch is a eight-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award and widely recognized expert on Windows administration, deployment and virtualization. This tip was excerpted from his new book Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012 Training Guide published by Microsoft Press which is available from Amazon. For more tips by Mitch you can follow him on Twitter or friend him on Facebook.

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